Ready your eyes: Apple said to be tripling the iPhone 6 resolution

Pixel-tripling spells a 1704x960 display

Apple's next iPhone was always likely to come with a bigger display than the 4-inch one found on the iPhone 5S and 5C, but it now looks as though with greater screen will come greater resolution.

Insiders talking to 9to5Mac say that Apple has been testing a pixel-tripling mode for the next iPhone display.

The would give the iPhone 6 a sharp 1704 x 960 display. The site has shown its workings thus: the current iPhones on the market have a base resolution of 568 x 320.

To reach Retina display standard, the existing iPhones use pixel-doubling to give a resolution of 1136 x 640, but tripling that base pixellage gives the not-quite-full-HD 1704 x 960 resolution.

There'll be a test at the end

So you'd still get the same aspect ratio (16x9) as on the iPhone 5S, but on a screen that is likely to be both taller and wider than the iPhone 5S and 5C's while still maintaining a pixel density that classifies it as Retina-ready.

The site posits that, using the pixel-tripling math, a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch iPhone would come in at 416ppi and 355ppi respectively - both comfortably beating the iPhone 5S which rocks 326ppi.

So what does this mean for iOS 8? 9to5Mac's sources say that core elements (home screen, notification center, settings) will appear larger on the bigger, denser iPhone 6 screen - others suggest that Apple and developers will revamp their apps and icons to fall in with the upgraded display before the device's launch.

It's worth bearing in mind that Apple will be testing all kinds of displays and settings, so these pixel tripling experiments may come to naught. But it certainly makes sense that the company be increasing the display quality along with its size.